Criminal language or artistic license?

Wednesday

Aug 6, 2014 at 12:01 AM

An honor roll student who posted a rap song on the Internet that was littered with foul language and lyrics threatening to kill East Stroudsburg High School North personnel waived his right to a preliminary hearing Tuesday.

BETH BRELJE

An honor roll student who posted a rap song on the Internet that was littered with foul language and lyrics threatening to kill East Stroudsburg High School North personnel waived his right to a preliminary hearing Tuesday.

Zyair Mivvia Clark, 18, of East Stroudsburg, was just weeks away from graduation when his song was discovered in May and started circulating throughout the school.

Clark was removed from school and charged with aggravated assault, terroristic threats and other offenses for allegedly writing the song called "Columbine" that threatened the principal, two teachers, two administrators and a counselor, all by name.

Defense attorney Brett Riegel said Tuesday that Clark was a minor when he posted the rap, and there is a good chance the case could be turned over to the juvenile court.

Clark's bail was originally set at $25,000, and Magisterial District Judge Paul Menditto kept the bail at that amount and added some conditions.

Clark must have no contact with teachers, administrators or staff at East Stroudsburg North, and he must refrain from posting music or lyrics on the Internet until the end of the case.

Erik Nielson, assistant professor of liberal arts at the University of Richmond in Virginia, is aware of Clark's case.

He teaches a course on hip-hop culture, rap music and African-American literature, and is co-author of a paper "Rap on Trial."

The paper explores rap lyrics used as evidence in trials against amateur rappers, almost all of whom are young men of color.

"Rap music primes cultural stereotypes about young black men," Nielson said. "Prosecutors are knowingly playing upon stereotypes to get a conviction. Is that racist? It certainly seems there is a significant racial element to this practice of targeting rap."

Sometimes rap lyrics are used as evidence in criminal cases.

That was the case with Vonte Skinner, who was convicted of attempted murder in 2008 and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Prosecutors didn't have much evidence, but during the trial, presented pages of his violent rap lyrics, written long before the crime.

This week the New Jersey State Supreme Court overturned Skinner's conviction, saying the lyrics were unrelated to the crime and that introducing the lyrics in the trial unfairly prejudiced the jury.

With more frequency, cases like Clark's are surfacing, in which the content of the rap music itself is considered a crime.

"The lyrics are prosecuted as threats, often in conjunction with social media," Nielson said. "Prosecutors charge terroristic threats for stock rap phrases that those familiar with the genre recognize right away."

Prosecutors bring rap lyrics to trial to make a defendant to look like a thug, Nielson said.

"It is introduced as intent or a confession. They argue rap should be read literally, not as an art form," Nielson said, but rap is art, with a long history of exaggeration, metaphor and rappers who create characters that are speaking in the song.

That is why most rappers use false names.

"As with any art form, there is an author and a speaker. Rappers go out of their way to signal to us that they are creating a character. The stage name is the clearest indication that rap lyrics are not an autobiographical confession," Nielson said.

The rap storytelling tradition can be traced back to the 1800s, and it has long had content describing criminal behavior. In the late 1980s, gangster rap became popular and lucrative. Record companies started pushing rappers in that direction.

"For many young men of color, rap music is seen as an alternative to a life of crime or drug dealing. When you find men devoting time to this art form, it is often a way to not have to engage in the things they are rapping about," he said.